Obama’s second inaugural was far from the unifying speech that we were promised but instead a declaration of (continued) war on the conservative movement and a rallying cry for liberals. Does the President not realise that he won the 2012 election and doesn’t have to carry on campaigning? Or did someone load up an old draft of his convention speech in to the autocue by mistake? “O, what the heck. I'll read it anyway…”

First the bipartisan bit. It was fortuitous that the second inauguration of America’s first black president coincided with Martin Luther King Day – which leant a civil rights theme to the procedings. So Myrlie Evers-Williams, wife of a slaughtered civil rights hero, gave a moving invocation about how far America has come, and even Lamar Alexander referenced Alex Haley (author of Roots). The choir sang Battle Hymn of the Republic in reminder of that ol' "separation of church and state" that liberals are always banging on about, and even Joe Biden was sworn in without an anticipated hitch (although someone will have to break it to him that he’s not president now).

So everything was going great until …. Obama took to the stand. It was speculated that he would try to “bring us together”, but instead he laid out a philosophical vision that will have conservatives spitting blood. His refrain was “We the people” and he noted that the promise of equality whilst “self evident” was not “self executing.” Indeed, the republic could not stand if dominated by a “privileged few” (read folks making over $250,000 a year) and only “collective action” could preserve “individual freedoms.” You can see where all this is leading. It begins with an "s" and ends with "ism".